Controlling the Silk Route

chapter three

Controlling the Silk Route

Collapse of the Old Empires

Vast empires such as Rome and Han China possessed are hard to

maintain. Through the whole of the Roman-Han period, the stability

that allowed the trade routes to prosper was constantly under threat

and would occasionally break down altogether.

The 's official history records the exploits of a general called Chao. In 73 ce he took an army into the ,

A A view ofmodern-day where the constant raids of the (Huns) had dislodged Istanbul, formerly Chinese power and upset Silk Route trade. It was a successful Constantinople. The Roman

Emperor Constan tine gave the campaign and led to increased contact between China and the city his name when he made it Kushan and Parthian Empires. But Rome and Han China were never his capital in 330 ce. to meet - perhaps because of sheer distance or perhaps

through the intervention of the middle empires, keen to An 18th Century Chinese maintain control of the lucrative East-West trade. drawing of two Xiongnu

warriors. The Xiongnu During the Third Century ce, the constant were a constant threat threats to Han China's stability finally to Chinese control became irresistible. Floods and famine of the Tarim Basin

throughout the resulted in a series of rebellions period of the throughout the empire, Han Dynasty. seriously weakening the

power of the Han. Warlords

seized control of provincial

cities and the Xiongnu once

again attacked from the North.

With the death of the last Han

Emperor in 220 ce, the dynasty

came to an end and China

divided into a series of smaller,

unstable kingdoms. Controlling the Silk Route

The Roman Empire, too, was beginning to crumble. The cost of eastern luxuries and maintaining large armies had drained its economy, leaving it almost bankrupt. Recovery was hampered by internal revolts and the barbarian invasions from northern Europe and Asia. In 330 ce, the Emperor Constantine selected

Constantinople, at the mouth of the Black Sea, as his new capital, reflecting the gradual shift eastwards of Roman interests. Over the next few centuries, the empire was to lose control of its western

European and north African territories. The remaining lands became known as the Byzantine Empire (taking its name from

Constantinople's old name, Byzantium).

A The marble head of the

Roman Emperor Constantine

who ruled from 306 to 363 ce.

This was pan of a colossal

sculpture that stood over

15 metres high.

An excavation ofa Silk Route

town on the southern edge of

the Taklamakan conducted by

Sir Aurel Stein in 1901. The

wooden carvings on the site

date from around 200 CE and

reveal how the inhabitants

were much influenced by

styles from nothern India and

Iran. Stein also found evidence

that the settlement was

abandoned about 270 CE and

concluded that this was

probably a result of the

breakdown of Chinese power

in the Tarim Basin which

followed the end of the Han The Romans' old adversaries, the Parthians, had also been having Dynasty. problems maintaining their empire. In 224 ce, they were finally ousted by a powerful and militaristic tribe from southern Iran - the

Sasanians. Not content with the lands of Mesopotamia and Iran, the

Sasanians swept down the Indian Grand Road to take on the Kushans.

From the middle of the Third Century ce, they completely dominated the Silk Route territories between the Pamirs and the Euphrates.

During all this upheaval, overland trade inevitably declined but it did not cease altogether. The Byzantines still bought silk in large quantities and the Chinese, despite their internal problems, still contrived to send the material eastwards to meet this demand, by land and increasingly by sea. The Sasanians, like the Parthians before them, swiftly took on the profitable role of middlemen.

23 Controlling the Silk Route

Sasanians and Sogdians

The Silk and Spice Routes flourished under the Sasanians. Their

government maintained a rigid control of the trade and imposed heavy

taxes on all goods passing between their lands and the Byzantine

Empire. This was made possible by the network of forts that lined the

Sasanian-Byzantine borders - the only official route that was open to

trade passed between the heavily fortified border cities of Nisibis and A A Sasanian glass bottle Dara. It is still possible to trace this part of the Silk Route in northern dating from 5 -6th Century ce. Sasanian glass such as this has Mesopotamia as frequent traffic has left a heavily worn track crossing been found as far east as the landscape. Japan. Further east, the Sasanians shared the role of middlemen with the

Y A present day Kyrgyz Sogdians. A tribe from the Samarkand region, the Sogdians had first caravan of Bactrian camels risen to prominence on the Silk Route under the Kushans. They took passing through the Pamirs, just as the Sogdian caravans caravans over the Pamirs and around the Tarim Basin, sometimes as did centuries before. far as Dunhuang. Alongside the Sasanians, the Sogdians developed

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their reputation as the merchants of still further. They established several communities along the northern edge of the Tarim

Basin, helped by their knowledge of sophisticated irrigation techniques.

No longer protected by the Han, the techniques of sericulture and silk weaving had slowly spread westwards, although China continued to produce the best quality silken twine and material. Using Chinese thread, Sasanian and Sogdian silk weaving industries flourished from

Central Asia to Mesopotamia. Few examples of these silks still survive but some made their way to Europe, where they have been found wrapped around sacred relics, while other fragments have been discovered at Buddhist cave sites in the Tarim Basin. Their motifs and A This Sasanian gold plate style heavily influenced the later designs of Chinese, Byzantine and with silver reliefshows the 4th Century King Shapur II

Muslim cloth. hunting.

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Sasanian and Sogdian decorated metal bowls and jugs were also A Two Sasanian iron swords, one with a finely worked gold highly prized. Other vessels made from thick clear glass with elaborate scabbard, both dating from cut decoration are typical Sasanian products and were traded as far as 6 -7th Century ce. Japan where they were used by the imperial family. Objects like these provide definite evidence that the Silk Route was still functioning.

It is very unlikely that any merchants took part in direct long¬ ? r-v< ÍL-!?^ distance trade. Instead, the exact size and composition of a given 45 / ~~^~~~~JÏ caravan must have changed with every stop and supply of fresh pack 0 animals. In addition, one-humped camels (dromedaries or cross¬ £v Vi breeds) and mules were used for the western parts of the Silk Route, whereas, in the east, only the shaggy haired, two-humped, Bactrian camels were capable ofcrossing the cold and hot extremes of the Pamir 0 / - " mountains and the Taklamakan desert. Jö

A A map of the Sasanian

Empire in 531 CE when it was

at its greatest extent.

25